Last year, Japanese officials returned empty-handed after going to a remote Philippine village to investigate reports that two former Imperial Army members were hiding there. Ishinosuke Uwano Born in 1922, Ishinosuke Uwano was drafted in the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II, and was posted to the garrison of the then-Japanese southern half of Sakhalin Island in 1943 – the northern half belonged to the USSR. Ishinosuke Uwano was serving with the Japanese Imperial Army in Russia's Sakhalin Island when the war ended. Ishinosuke Uwano is on Facebook. 06 Jul 05 |  He hadn't visited Japan in 60 years and had to enter the country on a Ukraine passport. In the years following the war, his family received reports of scattered sightings of him in Sakhalin, where it was suspected he had gone into hiding in its rugged and harsh terrain after he found himself cutoff and behind enemy lines following the Red Army’s advance. Born in 1922, Ishinosuke Uwano was drafted in the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II, and was posted to the garrison of the then-Japanese southern half of Sakhalin Island in 1943 – the northern half belonged to the USSR. There is still much interest in Japan in the plight of former soldiers who never made it home, the BBC's Chris Hogg in Tokyo says.

In August of 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and successfully invaded and seized the southern half of Sakhalin, despite fierce Japanese resistance.After Japan surrendered, the Soviets shipped the surviving Japanese of the Sakhalin garrison to prisoner of war camps in Siberia, where they labored for years, until they were repatriated to Japan in the late 1940s and early 1950s.Uwano was not included in their numbers. In 1958, Ishinosuke Uwano was stationed at Russia’s distant Sakhalin Island and went missing for decades.

Why Mr Uwano remained in Russia, and how he ended up in Ukraine, has not been disclosed. 15 Aug 05 |  Country profiles RELATED INTERNET LINKS: It has been confirmed that a former Imperial Japanese Army soldier is living in Ukraine, officials at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Monday, according to Kyodo News. Between the Soviet Union’s paranoid penchant for excessive secrecy, exacerbated by Cold War tension, as well as bureaucratic ineptness, neither the Japanese government nor Uwano’s family were notified.After his eventual release from Soviet imprisonment, he settled in the Soviet Union instead of returning to Japan.

The Japanese authorities are now restoring him to the family registry. Declared among Japan''s war dead in 2000, Ishinosuke Uwano resurfaced in Ukraine and is expected to arrive in Japan on Wednesday for a 10-day visit with relatives. He’d been declared dead in 2000.

In 2006, Uwano was discovered alive, living in Ukraine. It was only after he asked Ukrainian friends to contact the Japanese government, which then sent officials to interview him in Kiev, that the story of his survival came out.When he sought to visit Japan in order to pray at his parents’ graves, reconnect with his family, and see once more his birth country’s famous cherry blossoms, it emerged that, because he had been declared dead in 2000, he was technically no longer considered a Japanese citizen. He got naturalized as a citizen, ended up living in the Ukrainian SSR, married, and had three children.

21 Dec 05 |  He had been recorded as dead in official Japanese databases. In 2000, they recorded his disappearance under a Japanese law which says those soldiers who did not return after World War II can be registered as war dead. He was allowed to visit Japan, but only as a visiting Ukrainian citizen travelling on his Ukrainian passport.Not that Uwano minded. “Ukraine has become my homeland”, he said. He is expected to visit his surviving family members and friends in Iwate, 290 miles (467km) northeast of Tokyo, with his son before returning to Ukraine on 28 April, the AFP news agency reported. He was last reported seen there in 1958. At some point, it seems he had reconciled himself to Japan’s defeat and surrendered to the Soviets. His details were removed from the official family registry and, because of this, Mr Uwano must "return to Japan technically as a Ukrainian citizen with a Ukraine passport," a government official said. Mr Uwano is due to visit Japan for the first time in six decades on Wednesday. The last reported sighting of Uwano in Sakhalin was received by his relatives in 1958, a full 13 years after the war had ended. Some were kept as prisoners and forced to work as slave labourers, others chose to remain of their own accord. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. 23 Mar 06 |  He was one of thousands of Japanese soldiers and civilians who were left stranded across the Pacific and in parts of China and Russia after the war ended. The 83-year-old has now reappeared, in Ukraine, where he is married and has a family, Japanese officials say. Little did they know that Uwano was actually alive far away in an unlikely part of the world. His family had him declared dead in 2000. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Ishinosuke Uwano, 83, is now living in Ukraine with his family.

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